BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Saberhagen Picks Up Where He Leaves Off

It had been nine years, but it seemed like yesterday.

New York’s Bret Saberhagen pitched a five-hitter and beat the Cardinals, 8-1, Thursday night in a St. Louis outing reminiscent of his dominating performances for the Kansas City Royals in the 1985 World Series.

Saberhagen was 2-0 with an 0.50 earned-run average and was named the Series most valuable player for Kansas City in 1985. Ozzie Smith, the only remaining Cardinal from that series, said Thursday that the only thing that had changed about Saberhagen was his uniform.

“He had it all tonight,” Smith said. “Good fastball, good breaking ball, good changeup, good bat, good running. He’s the same.”

Those long-ago feats were on Saberhagen’s mind when he got to Busch Stadium.

“Do I still think about it? Yeah, definitely,” Saberhagen said. “You come to a place and the people always remind you. They were yelling ‘ ‘85 World Series’ and stuff tonight, and I still sign a lot of memorabilia from that series.”

Saberhagen (4-1) stopped two streaks: the Cardinals’ 12-game home-run streak that tied a team record set in 1955 and Gregg Jefferies’ 17-game hitting streak.

Florida 5, Philadelphia 0--Chris Hammond pitched a seven-hitter and Jerry Browne tripled home three runs in the first inning for the Marlins in Miami.

Hammond (2-3) walked one and struck out five in pitching his first nine-inning complete game.

The Phillies have lost six consecutive road games.

Houston 8, Cincinnati 6--Luis Gonzalez singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning as the Astros recovered from Brian Dorsett’s ninth-inning grand slam at Cincinnati.

Dorsett had tied it, 6-6, with a two-out grand slam--the first of his career--off Tom Edens.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Kansas City 11, Toronto 9--The Royals got home runs from Greg Gagne and Brent Mayne at Toronto.

With Kansas City trailing, 5-0, Gagne hit a three-run homer in the second inning.

Down, 7-3, the Royals scored five runs in the third to take an 8-7 lead. Felix Jose singled in a run and Mayne hit his first grand slam.